


Deafening Silence

by Arya_Rayne



Series: Gaps and Silences [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Daybreak Town Sign Language, Deaf!Roxas, Gen, Marluxia knows sign language, Mute!Sora, Mute!Sora AU, he teaches Roxas, pre-family feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2020-11-28
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:53:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27753376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arya_Rayne/pseuds/Arya_Rayne
Summary: From the moment he woke up in Twilight Town, quiet was all he knew. He would never know the voice of his Superior, never know the sound of his friends, never know the crunch and rustle of Heartless. Saïx was ready to dismiss him as useless, Vexen couldn't find anything wrong other than the obvious. Roxas was deaf.Meeting Marluxia was like inching open a door that had been shut tight. The Graceful Assassin was able to teach Roxas sign language. The next few weeks was a fight to prove his usefulness as the mission to Castle Oblivion started.And then the Castle Oblivion team returned with three teens. Meeting Sora,suddenly everything made sense.
Series: Gaps and Silences [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1823869
Comments: 9
Kudos: 19





	Deafening Silence

When he woke up in the town of constant twilight, everything was silent. With no memories, he thought nothing of it, he had nothing to tell him this wasn't normal, nothing to tell him he should have been able to hear clear as day. With no heart, there was no panic over his state, he couldn't feel anything. It was instinct alone which had him walk up to the gate of a run down mansion where he was met by a man in a black coat. 

Everything was silent.

The man placed his hand and raised they boy's head so that deep sky blue eyes met the shaded amber. From under the man's hood, dark skinned lips moved in an unheard question. Heard... hear... that concept filtered into his mind, partial understanding coming with it. He could not hear. The boy repeated his thought out loud, he thought. He felt his mouth move and the chords in his throat vibrate, but he could not hear his voice. 

The man before him frowned, but teen could not sense any emotion behind it. The man held out his left arm and gestured with his hand. A word appeared in the air. _Sora._. Then the man held out his right hand to the boy. The silent question was obvious.

_Will you come with me?_

Or at least, the boy thought he was asking. Whether it was an ask or a command, it didn't matter, because the boy took the man's hand. When he did so, the man's left hand gestured again and the word that was floating there scrambled itself, before stopping as an "X" was added. Now the word spelt _Roxas_. Somehow the boy knew that that was his name.

Everything was silent.

The coated man had brought Roxas to a blonde man. This man also wore a black coat and he pointed at a table to the side of the clean room they were in, giving Roxas a look. This was a command, not a question. The boy walked over and sat himself on the table. He could hear nothing as the blonde man started to examine him, mostly his ears. It was then that Roxas thought that maybe there was something that wasn't meant to be. 

From the way the blonde man and the cloaked man seemed to argue, or apathetically discuss in the case of the man with his hood up, Roxas knew his inability to hear was unexpected and... a feeling the boy didn't know. A few minutes later, Roxas had been handed to a red headed man with a lazy smirk. This man took him back to the town of constant twilight where he offered a cold food which was blue and on a stick. It was salty but sweet. Roxas thought he might have said so, but he wasn't sure. The following week was a blur.

Roxas learned names and faces from Axel, the red head. The man used a notebook and pen, and it was a form of communication that worked. Xemnas was the Superior, he was the man who had first found Roxas in the town called Twilight Town. When the Superior's hood came down, a mane of long silver hair was revealed. The blonde man who kept examining Roxas like a science experiment was called Vexen, and he was Number Four in the Organisation. Roxas also learned about the group he was now a part of; Organisation XIII. Axel had meticulously written out a short hand version of the Organisation's history.

And everything was silent.

He had started missions soon after a new girl, Xion, Number Fourteen, had joined. His missions were training, testing, and evaluating his skills... his _usefulness_. No one seemed to care that he could not hear, except Vexen, Xemnas, Axel and, surprisingly enough, Marluxia. If Roxas could feel, then Marluxia would have been a miracle that Kingdom Hearts had sent. Marluxia knew sign language which he started to teach Roxas. Perhaps it was the fact that he had no prior memories, but Roxas all but absorbed the knowledge the Graceful Assassin offered him. It didn't help, not quite, only Marluxia, Larxene, Luxord and Demyx knew this sign language. Axel wanted to learn, but wasn't learning as fast as Roxas. But Roxas now had a form of conversation. Now Saïx would have one of the four who knew the sign language pass on whatever he wanted said. Now... now Roxas was privy to insults thrown at the Lunar Diviner without a word said.

If Roxas had a heart, he was sure he would feel amusement, that emotion that Axel had described a few days ago. Larxene seemed to grin savagely when he started to learn the insults she was throwing out in sign language, Marluxia on the other hand merely shook his head. In a week Roxas was decently sufficient in sign language, which was helpful, because at the end of that week, Marluxia and Larxene left for Castle Oblivion along with Vexen, Zexion and Lexeaus. A few days after that, Axel left to go there too. Luxord kept teaching Roxas from where Marluxia had left off. But the Castle that Never Was had become emptier. 

Everything was silent, in his ears, and in the castle.

The next month and a bit passed with missions upon missions. Saïx seemed to hate him, which was odd, considering Nobodies had no hearts. In this month, Roxas also befriended Xion. The girl took her hood off for him and he could see her black hair and blue eyes, so similar to his. They couldn't communicate at first, neither of them had a notebook on them like Axel had, but they made do with simple hand gestures. About a week after the Castle Oblivion team left, Luxord started to teach Xion sign language too. He joined them on the Clock Tower in Twilight Town for ice-cream, a tradition started by Axel, and continued in his absence. While on top of the tower, Luxord banned speaking so that both teens could practice their sign language. Roxas thought that maybe this was what the concept of fun was talking about. He wondered if his memories would come back. He used to wonder if he'd gain his hearing, but now, he no longer questioned his silence.

Then, seven weeks after they had left, the Castle Oblivion team returned. They weren't alone however. Marluxia had brought back three more teens. Naminé, a memory witch who had helped uncover memories within Larxene and Marluxia, a replica of someone named Riku, and... Sora, Roxas' Somebody. The moment the team had returned, Larxene lead Naminé and the replica away, while Marluxia, Axel and Zexion went to report to Xemnas. Vexen however pointed to Roxas and Sora and then jabbed his thumb down the hall towards his lab. Roxas followed after the man, walking beside Sora who seemed to fidget. In just a few minutes, Roxas learned a shocking truth. His Somebody could hear the world around him, but could not speak. Something had happened when Roxas and Sora split, making Roxas deaf and Sora mute.

Everything was silent... but the silence wasn't so unexplained anymore. Roxas met Sora, and pieces began to fall into place.

**Author's Note:**

> More Mute!Sora AU but focusing on Deaf!Roxas! Woot! I suddenly came up with this today and wrote it in a few hours. This is a precursor to the actual Gaps and Silences fanfic! Which will be posted once it is finished. Thanks for reading!!


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